William P. Gilligan '77 is generally considered to be one of the
two or three finest hockey players ever to skate for Brown. The
All-American, All-East, and two-time All-Ivy performer ended his
career holding the Brown records for assists season (54) and career
(112) and points season (77) and career (180). The assist records
Gilligan broke belonged to Don Sennott '52, who had held them for a
quarter of a century. Sennott is one of Gilligan's firmest backers.
"I'd describe Gilligan as the perfect college hockey player,"
Sennott says. "The kid did everything well. He had no weaknesses
and made no mistakes. I'd rate him with Curt Bennett '70 and Bob
Gaudreau '66 as one of Brown's greatest stars." Gilligan's coach,
Dick Toomey, would agree. "Many players are content to practice the
things they do well. Not Bill Gilligan. Right from the start he
would work on the elements of the game where he was relatively
weak. For example, he needed to work on his skating after his
freshman year. He also developed by hard work a low, sizzling shot
that traveled about six inches off the ice. It was a shot that was
too high for the goalie to handle easily with his stick and just
low enough to give him trouble with the body." As a senior at
Beverly (MA) High, Gilligan led his team to a 19-1 record and the
North Shore Hockey League championship. He led the state in scoring
with 77 points and was named Essex County Player of the Year. After
another brilliant year at Taft School, Gilligan teamed with winger
Bob McIntosh to pace the Brown Cubs to a 19-0 mark. Gilligan had 35
goals for the Cubs that year, including six hat tricks. At the
varsity level, Gilligan was 20-22-42 his sophomore year, 25-54-79
as a junior, and 23-36-59 in 1976-77. In his junior season,
Gilligan led the East in scoring with his 79 points, was named to
the All-American, All-East, and All-Ivy first teams, was voted the
Outstanding Hockey Player in New England, and helped the Bruins
finish third nationally. After playing two seasons for the
Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey League, Bill Gilligan went
to play hockey in Austria - where, naturally, he has been a leading
scorer.